Political Quarry Blog: Howe supports boost in funding

ST. PAUL – Rep. Jeff Howe’s ire was so evident in the Minnesota House Chamber last week that few could miss it.

Howe, R-Rockville, and some other lawmakers were urging colleagues to suspend their rules and immediately take up a bill that would boost state funding for nursing homes and other care providers for the elderly or disabled.

The plea fell on deaf ears, although there’s a good chance the issue will come up later this session.

The measure backed by Howe and other House Republicans would increase funding by 5 percent for care providers of the elderly and people with disabilities. Most of that extra money would have to go to wage increases for employees.

Sen. Dave Brown, R-Becker, is among the Senate lawmakers who’ve said such an increase should be a priority this year.

Howe says care providers in his district, such as Assumption Home in Cold Spring, need the boost after years of stagnant funding from the state. The problem could be compounded by a potential minimum-wage increase favored by DFL lawmakers and Gov. Mark Dayton, he said.

If the minimum wage goes up and some providers, especially nursing homes, don’t get a funding boost, Howe said some may have to close.

The providers should have gotten a funding boost last session, Howe said, with passage of the state’s current two-year budget that increased spending in other areas.

“With the increases we made, they should have gotten a fair shake and they didn’t,” he said.

The fact that there’s a $1.2 billion surplus this year means there’s no excuse to delay the funding increase, Howe added.

Many DFLers also support the move or something similar. Gov. Mark Dayton’s supplemental budget proposal would boost funding for such providers by 4 percent.

During a Thursday House floor session, Howe had sharp words for a few DFLers who explained their opposition to the rule suspension by urging patience and referring to sessions of yore. Howe — a freshman lawmaker who clearly wasn’t in a mood to wait — responded that he wasn’t around in past sessions, and the focus should be on what can be done now.

“There’s many of us that are serving today that weren’t serving then. This is a new Legislature,” Howe told the Times afterward. “If you’re going to live in the past, we’re never going to go forward.”

Keep up with Central Minnesota politics in The Political Quarry, www.sctimes.com/politicalquarry. Follow Times political reporter Mark Sommerhauser on Twitter @msommerhauser.